Where do business decisions end and blackmail begin?

When a private company can threaten an entire nation, it may be time to re-evaluate their place in business. In fact, it might be time to re-think how business is done period.

Microsoft has faced off South Korea and threatened to remove every trace of MS products from that country. from an entire nation I said.

The link at the end here will explain all the gory details but here is the down and dirty. South Korea does not like the way MS locks users into only one way to listen to music in XP. They want choices.

Microsoft does not want them to have choices so they will take their ball and go home. Didn't we or aren't we dealing with this in Europe? Didn't the EU fine MS gazillions of dollars for the same thing? It seems that Microsoft has grown to be much more than a software company. They now want to dictate national policy.

Well, sorry to see you guys go. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out Bill...oh, and don't bother shutting off the light. Linux is coming in right behind you.

I am trying to pinpoint just when it was that "the customer is always right" died. Was it during Microsoft's rise to power? I'm thinking it was. Now pulling an entire company out of Korea is not going to curtail the use of Windows by much. those who find themselves in too much of a pinch will simply resort to Piracy, and the others will make the switch to Linux. Microsoft states that their sales in South Korea total to less than one percent of their gross. So that makes it OK to leave millions of people stranded? You have taught them no other way than the MS way since birth and now you're just gonna leave? That's not even a shady business practice.

That is blackmail.

Usually, I wish no one harm in any circumstance. I think I am going to make an exception here. At the risk of thousands losing their jobs and a national economy taking a pretty mean hit...I hope MS is forcefully thrown from Korea into the sea.

It won't be the first time they've been told to sink or swim. Besides, I believe there will be a school of penguins to hold onto right off shore.

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